A SWIFT EDUCATION

 POST # 626

After leaving my recent house sit with Sal and Gracie, I boarded the Skytrain to head back to Vancouver.  For a Sunday, it seemed unusually busy.  The other thing that I noticed was that the vast majority of the passengers, at least the ones in my carriage, were female.  And it also appeared that many of the females were a mother/daughter combination.

Sitting across from me, and a couple of rows back, was one of these mother/daughter combos.  They were all dressed up in sparkly outfits, with plenty of things dangling from their wrists, and both had the number 13 printed on some part of their bodies.  What on earth could all of this mean?

The journey continued on, and at one point, another mother/daughter couple boarded the train, and because it was by now, standing room only, they had to stand right beside the mother/daughter with the number 13 printed on their bodies.  The recently arrived mother/daughter, also had the number 13 on them, and they were also all dressed up in sparkly outfits.  What's going on here, I asked myself?

I had absolutely no clue whatsoever.  At some point these four females started up a conversation, and it wasn't long before one of them mentioned the name Taylor Swift.  I've heard of the name, but that's about it.  And now I was getting a Swift education for sure, as they continued their conversation.  It didn't take too long before I worked out that they, and probably most of the rest of the people on the Skytrain were heading to a Taylor Swift concert.  

The station that I left the train, was the closest one to the stadium that the concert was being played at, and the neighbourhood was inundated with carbon copies of these women that I had seen on board the train.

The following day, I boarded the Amtrak train, to head across the border once again to visit Mary and Dora-dog.  The train was sold out, and now I know why.  It was packed with concert goers, now returning home from the concert, the night before.

So that was my Swift education.  I sat down with Dora-dog, and patiently explained to her who Taylor Swift is, and what she does for a living, and this was her reaction.

She appears to be as impressed with the news as I was, in other words, not impressed at all.  But I guess that if you're an old fart like me, or a bonehead like Dora-dog, Taylor Swift doesn't have much of an impact.  And that is probably as it should be.  I for one, won't be going out anytime soon, to get the number 13 painted onto my skin.

grateful for every breath,

Paul

The Thoughtful Wanderer